134 MODES OF BURIAL IN TUMULI. 



set on edge forming the sides, a third closing one end, and 

 a large flat stone placed horizontally on the top ; the other 

 end being left open."* 



Schoolcraft also mentions that in the United States the 

 Eedskins very frequently left an opening in the grave cover 

 for the same purpose.-f- 



Archseolosnsts are divided as to whether dolmens were in 



o 



all cases originally covered over with earth. Mr. Fergusson 

 denies this, while it has been ably maintained by Mr. Lukis. 

 It must, I think, be admitted that some of the cases relied 

 on by Mr. Fergusson must be abandoned ; nevertheless, I am 

 disposed to believe that in some instances the dolmen was left 

 uncovered. 



The majority of these dolmen were no doubt sepulchral. 

 Some, however, were very probably shrines, erected in honour 

 of a god, not of a man. Mr. Walhouse, in an interesting 

 paper on non-sepulchral rude stone monuments,! describes a 

 dolmen consisting of back and side slabs set on edge, observed 

 by him on the table-land of Mysore, and which was a temple 

 to Hanuman, containing a rude image of the god, with a few 

 flowers strewn before it. Subsequently he found there temple 

 dolmens in common use by the Malayalies, a Tamil race 

 inhabiting the Shiarai Hills. 



We must not, however, attribute too much importance to 

 the similarity existing between the megalithic erections in 

 various parts of the world. Give any child a box of bricks, 

 and it will immediately build dolmens, cromlechs, and " tri- 

 lithons," like those of Stonehenge, so that the construction 

 of these remarkable monuments may be regarded as another 

 illustration of the curious similarity existing between the 

 child and the savage. 



* Jones, Antiquities of the South- t Schoolcraft's Indian Tribes, 

 ern Indians, p. 216. Bartram'? pt. i. p. 33. 

 Travels, p. 370. t Jour. Anthr. lust. Aug. 1877. 



